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PATENTED JULY 6 T'.- .T. SLOAN. THERMOS'EAI FOR REGULATING HEAT.

THOMAS J. SLOAN, OF NEW YORK,

THERMOSTAT FOR REG-ULATING- HEAT.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,106, dated July 6, 1852.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that I, Tr-roams J. SLOAN, of New York, N. Y., have inventeda certain new and useful Improvement in the Thermostat for RegulatingHeat in Its Various Applications in Domestic Economy and the Arts; and Ido hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,making part of this specification, in which Figure 1, is a frontelevation of the apparatus as applied to a damper or register foradmitting heated air into an apartment; Fig. 2, is a vertical sectionthrough the spindle and clutches; and Fig. 3, a section representingsome of the parts.

The same letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

The expansion of bodiessuch as metals and mercuryhas long since beenapplied to operate dampers, registers, ventilators and valves for thepurpose of regulating heat, but heretofore with only partial success,for the reason that such instruments have not possessed the requisitesensitiveness. In most instances it is necessaryas in neglecting thetemperature of an apartmentthat the instrument should be operated by averyslight variation of temperature and as the expansion of metal rodsor mercury, &c., has heretofore been employed directly to operate thedampers, &c., it has been found that it requires too great a range oftemperature to afiect the instrument to answer a good practical purpose.

The object of my invention is to produce an instrument which shall havethe requisite power to open dampers, registers, or valves of whatevermagnitude and description and which at the same time shall be sosensitive as to be operated by a very slight change in the temperature,and to this end the nature of my invention consists in the applicationof the physical principle of the expansion and contraction of substancesby varying degrees of heat, to regulate the action of a mechanism whichoperates a damper, register, ventilator or valve, which mechanism isoperated by an independent motor to open or close the damper, &c.,whereby the slighest variation in the temperature can be made to affectthe instrument and thus render it practically eflicient as a means ofregulating temperatures.

In the accompanying drawings a, represents a bevel wheel on a horizontalshaft to be operated by any desired motor, such as a spring or weightthere being a train of wheels, somewhat like the movement of a clock,but not represented in the drawings, as the said bevel wheel can beoperated by any desired means. This said wheel engages with, andcommunicates motion in opposite directions to two bevel wheels 6 b onhollow or sleeve shafts 0, 0, that turn on a stationary vertical spindle(Z. ()n the said spindle there are two sliding forked clutches e, 6, oneat each end which slide freely on the said spindle and each providedwith a collar embraced by an arm f, projecting from a vertical rod 9,that slides freely in two studs h, h. The spindle between the two bevelwheels is threadedas at 2', and to this is fitted a nut j, with arms 7c,70, at each end, and a collar Z in the middle embraced by one end of alever m, the other end of which is connected by a rod n, with the crankarm 0, of a damper or register 79.

The forks q, q, of the two clutches e, 6, pass through holes in the twobevel wheels and also through holes in disks r, r, on the hollow sleeveshafts of the bevel wheels, and the space between the ends of the twosets of forks is just a little greater than the length of the nut 7' sothat when the clutches and the nut are in the right position, the twoclutches and their corresponding bevel wheels will turn freely withoutturning the nut, but if the rod 9, be elevated the forks of the lowerclutch will strike against the lower arms is, is, of the nut j, and turnit on the threaded part of the spindle, and thus cause it to rise andopen the register, and when on the contrary the rod 9, is depressed, theforks of the upper clutch will act on the upper arms of the nut andcause it to descend and close the register. The rod 9, is held in placeby a dog t, that takes into a series of notches s, in the side of therod. The said dog is hung on a stud pin at u, and is held in the notchesby the tension of a spring 1), and from this it will be seen that solong as the dog is held in place by the tension of its spring the rodand the two clutches will not be elevated or depressed. There is a leverw, that turns on a fulcrum pin at m, and having an arm runninghorizontally under a pin g, on the rod 9, and under a cam a, on theshaft of the wheel a.

out the dog, and after passing permits it tobe drawn in to catch andhold the rod at the point to which it may have been carried up or letdown by the lever 10. The extent of vibration of the lever to, whichregulates the action of the motive force on the damper, &c., is in turnregulated by the degree of heat to which a compound rod of metal isexposed.

The compound rod of metal f, is composed of two strips of metal, onebrass and the other iron, soldered or otherwise put together from end toend so that they shall not slip 011 each other. This compound bar isattached by its lower end 0, to the frame work or plate of theinstrument, and at the upper end the iron extends a little beyond thebrass, and is there bent so that the end shall bear against a face orpallet d on an arbor 6 provided with an arm 7, that lies between twobrackets g, 9', that gage the extent of its vibrations. The end of thisarm carries a small toothed rack A, which is inclined so as to form amovable inclined plane or eccentric sector. As the temperature rises,the brass of the compound rod 7 expands more than the iron which willcause the upper end to move from the pallet and to permit the arm withits rack to descend; and when the temperature sinks, the compound rodwill be deflected the other way and bear against the pallet and elevatethe arm with its rack. The arm 2" of the lever 10, as it vibrates,strikes against the face of the rack 72., which gages the extent of itsmotion, and as the face of the rack is inclined, it follows that when itis depressed by the increasing temperature it reduces the range ofmotion of the lever 4,0, which permits the rod 9 and the clutches todescend to close the damper, and vice versa.

At j there is a temper or set screw which passes through a part of theframing and bears against the compound rod to set the instrument to anydesired temperature.

It will be obvious from the foregoing that this method of regulatingheat can be ap plied to a great variety of purposes, such as regulatingthe heating and ventilating of buildings, ovens, kilns &c., theregulating of the draft of furnaces, stoves and fireplaces, the draft ofsteam boiler furnaces by the temperature of the steam, and the escape ofsteam from boilers with the view ment of a clock, with a fly wheelinstead of the escapement although it can be used for this purpose withthe escapement.

I do not wish to confine myself to the use of compound. metal bars asthe means of regulating theaction of the mechanism on the damper, etc,to regulate the opening and the closing thereof by the variation oftemperature, as any of the known equivalents thereof may be substituted,such as the differential linear expansion of metal rods, or the linearexpansion of one rod attached to a plate or frame made of some substancewhich will expand proportionally more or less, or the expansion andcontraction of mercury or alcohol or other fluid. Allthese being thewell known equivalents for the flexure of the compound metal rods abovedescribed. Nor do I wish to limit myself to the use of the mechanismabove described for operating the damper &c. Nor to the specialinstrument above described for regulating the action of the mechanism onthe damper, &c., as the metal rods or their equivalent are affected bythe change of temperature for it will be obvious that these may bevariously modified for the application of the principle of my invention,which consists as before stated in the application of the principle ofexpansion and contraction of substances by varying degrees of heat, tothe regulation of the action of a mechanism, actuated by an independentmotive force, to operate dampers, registers, ventilators, valves and allother equivalent devices, for regulating the admission or the emissionof heated air orrregulating the erate a damper, register, valve,ventilator or other equivalent device, which mechanism is actuated orpropelled by some independent motor, substantially in the manner and forthe purpose specified.

THOS. J. SLOAN.

Witnesses:

OARSTEN BROWN, E. G. ALLEN.

